Friday, August 29, 2008

Okay, I admit, I've been a little lazy with regards to any sort of photo taking lately. Phases and busyness? Is busyness a word? Has taken being home sick on the couch for 2 days get it done. Anyway, here's some photos from Thailand back in... May? Was there for Ben's wedding and travelled around a bit with Michelle from Calgary.

The trip started off in Bangkok, and I'm sure a bunch of photos were taken, they were all on Michelle's camera and she's been too lazy to share! And being it wasn't my first trip to Bangkok, I wasn't all that eager to snap away either. But it was a nice visit for about 5 days because Ben, Samantha and Connor were there and we did some touristy stuff, some good eating, some foot and back massages (envision myself, Ben and Michelle with beers in hand getting foot massages and some divey place... then envision Ben falling asleep and starting to snore!). The trip even involved me babysitting once (I hope the damage isn't permanent!).

So before I get started babbling and photo posting, here's a few map of Thailand, mostly from google maps:

After Bangkok, Ben et family headed to Phuket to start doing wedding prep type things while Michelle and I headed north. Our first stop was for one day (literally just the day) at Ayutthaya. Here's a snipped from Wikipedia...

The kingdom of Ayutthaya (Thai: อาณาจักรอยุธยา) was a Thai kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese (Annam), Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the city walls. In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest city in the East. The court of King Narai (1656-1688) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France, whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris. Before Ayutthaya fell to Burmese attack in 1767, its vassals included the Northern Shan states of present- day Myanmar, Lanna (Chiang Mai, Yunnan & Shan Sri (China), Lan Xang (Laos), Cambodian Kingdom, and some city- states in the Malay Peninsula.

At around 8 or 9 at night we caught the night train up to Chiang Mai. It was nice travelling with Michelle as neither our budgets were particularly tight (at least in the Thailand sense - I'm sure if we were in Hong Kong I wouldn't make this statement) and we got a first class cabin for ourselves. The 2nd class bunks didn't look too bad either, but then we heard stories of people partying all night and people snoring and people being sick and all of a sudden, $40 for a train ticket seems quite cheap! Was a little disturbing to wake up at 10AM and find Michelle already on her first beer (closeup of phone as proof... 12 MP has it's benefits)...

One of our first outings in Chiang Mai was a day trip to a temple in one of the hills surrounding the city. There were also waterfalls and some hikes to do, but it was rainy and we were pretty slow in getting going...

Another couple days in Chiang Mai were spent doing a 2-day trek in the mountains to the north. The first afternoon also included something I'm not so sure I wanted to do and still not sure I should have done (on ethical grounds), but none the less, I rode elephants for the afternoon. Actually, several aspects of this trek into the homelands of the hill tribes is rather ethically questionable. Tourism has radically changed these people, the tourism has resulted in roads being built which has changed the crops that people grow, erosion is a massive problem because the crops are being grown in large plantation for sale and export, etc. etc. I picked our guides brain about this and he thinks it's all beneficial as the farmers all used to grow poppies (i.e., heroin) and now they don't, and now they are getting civilized, which is a good thing I guess. Anyway, here's the photos...

It's Friday morning, about 9AM and I feel kind of crappy. Could definitely feel something coming on yesterday afternoon and I wasn't the only one in the office complaining of the exact same symptoms. So I'm set up in my home office today (i.e., lying down underwear on couch with blanket, pillow on lap for laptop and mouse on adjacent coffee table). Over the past few months of travelling I've led some pretty important conference calls from the funniest of situations. But I digress...

London is good, though weather is so so. Last weekend was fun with a trip to Stonehenge on Saturday with a friend and then a handful of us from the Olympics project got together for the London 2012 handover party in Trafalgar Square. Though the "party" was very non British and not much of a party as it had no booze. Not even a beer garden. Ummm... excuse me? Live music for how many hours without booze? What kind of alcoholics did they want to attract? So we all left half way and went to the pub. Which led to a bar. Which led to a club. All quite messy as usual...

Oh yeah, I don't think I had been to Ireland last time I blogged. Ended up flying into Dublin and driving to site up north (Derry). All went quite well and got to know some of the voices on the phone, had a good productive week of work and then got to spend a fun night in Dublin and they way home. I had come with another person from the London office and we were trying to figure out the best way to get home and I personally thought a night in Dublin was essential to work in. He was sure as it might cost a bit more or at least be questionable. Then I reminded him I was the Project Manager and I guaranteed his expenses would be approved. So all in all, I must say Dublin is a fun city and could definitely spend some time there (for those who've been reading my babble for a while, you'll remember they were pushing for me to relocate to Dublin many months ago).

Not too much else new... I've been extremely busy at work, but things are also going very very well. I've now tripled the budget forecast for the next 6 months (okay, I say "I" and clearly there is a team, but sometimes I spell teim with an i). I'm also working on my French and have even taken a couple lessons / tutorial type things. I'm going to France on Sept 8-10 for meetings and going to be managing a project just outside of Lyon, so I'm trying to get some practice. Going to a french meetup thing tonight actually which is just a thing where frenchies get together on Friday night at a pub and socialize, but a good way for me to practice (and when there happens to be some hot french women, such is life).

Last night was funny. I made Christian (friend mostly, but also landlord) come over to help me change light bulbs. I texted him saying can you come over and help me change a lightbulb and it sure sounded like it was a booty call! But the lights in the kitchen had only 1 bulb out of 4 working and I had bought the wrong bulbs which were pulls and the actual bulbs were push in (hard) and turn. Anyway, I thought that it was funny that I had to have someone come over to change my lightbulbs :) Okay, till later...

Saturday, August 09, 2008

I'm back in London with work visa in a new passport. Getting both of these seemed like big challenges a handful of weeks ago, but actually the passport took ~72 hours and the UK Ancestry Visa even less (though it did require me going to Vancouver). If only now I could actually get a job contract now. While I was away, International HR got involved and now instead of being a UK employee, I might be a Canadian employee with an expat deal (it's my choice but the expat deal is slightly in the lead). Which is all kind of funny because I'm currently a US employee. Any volunteers to do my taxes this year? Anyway, both job offers are on the table and we're working through issues - mostly boring stuff like if I'm a UK resident (therefore non-resident in Canada) employed by the Canadian branch of the company, how do I receive my ~6% company-match RRSP contribution because I can not contribute to RRSPs as a non-resident. Seems the company is more familiar with US ex-pats and I'm sure by the time this is all worked out they should have just given me a $20,000 bonus, told me to sign and saved all the HR expenses. Anyway, there are about 6 or so good dilemmas / issues like the RRSP issue that must be figured out before agreement is reached.

With that said, I'm very busy working. In fact, flew in at 6AM and was at the office by 8AM. The $600K proposal I presented in Philadelphia at the start of the North America travels and then completed somewhere between Winnipeg, Calgary and San Francisco (literally) is full steam ahead and I'm off to Northern Ireland on Monday to kick off the work. So needless to say the 3 days this week in advance of this kick off have been intense. All this while having hour long meetings with HR interspersed. I can deal with work, I can deal with HR, dealing with both might kill me. I'm very thankful I kept my flat as dealing with hotels and unsettledness at home could have put me over the edge! (and yes mother, I know unsettledness isn't a word, but my english ain't always so good)

Had some good days this week catching up with some old friends and just getting settled. A fun evening at the Earl's Court beer festival where a few beers were sampled (about the only time drinking half pints is acceptable). Had some big plans Friday night (not really), but ended up not getting out of the office till 10PM. Now I know that sounds bad, but to be fair, I slept in till noon and 10PM is and still kind of feels like 2PM (Winnipeg time that is). And the hours after everyone left were incredibly productive and I know have less than 20 emails in my inbox!!

It's Saturday afternoon right now and I've had a relaxing morning followed by a wander around Brixton shopping. Brixton is a strange neighbourhood if I may say. I'm midway between Clapham and Brixton with both having a lot of energy, but Brixton being the more ethnically interesting (largely black with a lot of African and Carribean flavour). It almost feels like a black Chinatown or Thailand with a web of indoor and outdoor fair type booths all covered in tarps carrying everything from coat hangers to pigs heads intermixed with shops and dollar stores etc. etc. (it looks quite quiet in these photos, which it certainly wasn't this morning, so clearly I've stolen these photos as I'm too lazy to carry my camera, but here's the source)...

And Brixton is pretty neat. So far this morning I've learned Sharon Osbourne and David Bowie are from Brixton. And the Eddie Grant song Electric Avenue is based on the Brixton night life. And I found the Brixton Acadaemy which is quite a famous venue for live music (about 7 minutes from my flat). If you really want to know more about this history of Brixton... (P.S. I live a few flats off of Acre Lane).

My big purchases were a white wicker basket with lid for dirty clothes, a brown bean bag cube chair / foot rest and a stainless garbage can for the bathroom. Wild and crazy I now. That with some hangers ran me £40 ($80) on the nose at Woolworths. I'd give

I'm being a tad unsocial at the moment... not sure if I'll even call anyone tonight or just enjoy some more downtime. The last many weeks have involved visiting so many people which is really great, but absolutely no down time. Between unpacking and repacking, the last visit in Winnipeg didn't even leave time to visit the grandparents. What a bad grandson I am! Maybe Sam / Justin / Rob / Gabe want to have a beer and game of pool at the Elbo Room - wait, wrong city...

Okay, I'm going to go play with my Thailand photos (maybe they'll still get posted some day) and I'll give another update after Ireland - I hear there are 8 women for every guy, so maybe there will be some interesting stories, or maybe I'll schedule myself to do all the fieldwork? ;)